Recommend me a versatile all-season fragrance! (sorry about the generic title)

Again, I apologize for adding to the orgy of "recommend me something!" threads. I'll try to make this less frazzled and as specific as possible. No time to read all this? Cliff notes are below!

So, I think it's occurred to me that I've pretty much smelled almost everything Sephora carries. I've worn a good 70% of the Macy's counter. Purged down my collection at least 2-3 times in the past few years because I'm such a minimalist (quantity wise). I almost feel as if I just got my yellow belt in karate. Even in a mere 2 years, I feel as if I'm totally done wearing kiddie aquatic, sweet, citrus fragrances. Looking at my wardrobe and what I've tried (under the "tried" tab), can anyone recommend something versatile that I've missed or highly recommend that I revisit again? I apologize for such a tedious task of doing so. Any help is appreciated. It's starting to freak me out when a lot of things in Sephora and Macy's fragrance counters are so "been there, done that". I don't know where else I can dig without spending a Benjamin and/or searching for something terribly obscure. I would greatly prefer not to blind buy the next one. I don't mind a reasonably priced niche that's not terribly hard to acquire a bottle of either. I know, it's an oxymoron. They're called "niche" for a reason. If it's a shade over $100 and worth every penny, I'll consider it as long as it's easy to acquire samples (LuckyScent or Perfumed Court). LOL.

Currently Testing:
Guerlain Vetiver - Smokey vetiver
John Varvatos Vintage - Fairly potent, fruity, a bit of a synthetic mish-mash of a lot of things. @_@
Cartier Declaration - Citrusy, fresh, not over bearing. It's a front-runner so far.
Lalique Encre Noire - It begins inky and dark, but develops into a gentle, soft, clean, soapiness. This could possibly replace my TM Cologne someday. Just not sure how I feel about the dark notes during the summer.
Guerlain L'Instant - Might be too sweet for summer, I should give it a full wearing.
Hugo Boss Bottled - Pretty fruity. I keep thinking it'll give me headaches just like Varvatos Vintage.
Chanel Platinum Egoiste - Wore this on a rainy day and it kept me peppy for the next 4-5 hours. It's quite a nice no frills fragrance. Some could say it's boring, but it's empowering. To me, it's like Clark Kent & Superman in a bottle.
Rive Gauche - Did not like the weird creamy spicy clove. I use an electric shaver, so this doesn't appeal to me anyway.

Need To Revisit:
Terre d'Hermes - Orange peel and mineral notes. The mineral notes is quite strange on a sunny day. The sun warms me up WITH TdH. Fantastic in spring at least.
Dior Homme - Winter and fall, DEFINITELY. Spring, perhaps, summer? Never tried it. I'm a sucker for a good amber note. This had it.
Fahrenheit 32 - This one confuses me. It feels like a summer fragrance, but the dry down feels like it could stand up to the cold. I get amber and vanilla a lot.
Gucci II - The hype it receives lately has me intrigued to wear this again. Before this was bashed pretty hard for it not being as good as Gucci I when I first joined BN. I didn't understand this fragrance at first until I wore it again a couple months ago. Great black tea note. Kinda refreshing too.

To Test Soon:
Juicy Couture Dirty English - Most likely a fall to early spring fragrance at best.
Tom Ford Grey Vetiver - Dunno, it's Tom Ford. Tom Ford for Men just seemed sorta eh. Maybe because I had high expectations for such a lofty price tag.
Cartier Roadster - Smelled okay on a scent strip at least.

Ones I Wished I Had A Way of Trying Before Buying:
Dior Homme Cologne
Carolina Herrera Chic (I may buy a mini of this first or Scented Monkey as a last resort)

Thanks everyone!

Cliff Notes:
Recommend me an all around, all season fragrance that I must absolutely try or revisit. I still want modern for someone in their mid 20's to early 30's who dresses in trendy, big city style (usual H&M/Zara type guy with a bit of HypeBeast). No sharp headache enducing grapefruit notes, no heavy tobacco (nauseating), no rum (also nauseating), no coriander/cilantro notes either (my skin tends to bring those out to the forefront). Looking to revamp the wardrobe a bit after my spring cleaning. Essentially looking for a new signature scent, not a holy grail (although that'd be nice).

Hmm...Divine L'Homme Sage, I should finally hit up The Perfumed Court for that one and get a few Creeds too. The Cavalli Black sounds like a nice sleeper, very reasonably priced too. I can get a sample of that with Herrera Chic too all in one shot. I know it's hard to find more to recommend and I got a few people stumped, I really appreciate the help guys, thanks! I love Basenotes. Haha.

I just found this thread too. I must have done a crappy job searching cuz I coulda swore there was a "versatile" thread. LOL.

http://www.basenotes.net/threads/209...tile-fragrance

From what I've gathered, I should look into Acqua di Parma Colonia, Habit Rouge (it's Guerlain, worth a shot, not sure if it's suitable for my style), then some Creeds (GIT, Millesime Imperial, Silver Mountain Water, and Himalaya or as I call it, "Creed starter kit"). Those are the few that piqued my interest since they were mentioned multiple times in that thread. Any other ones mentioned more than once, I've worn before, pretty much.

As a car enthusiast who drives a Subaru Impreza 2.5RS (it's like your GC8 WRX overseas, but naturally aspirated instead...and crappier front seats), that Green Irish Tweed analogy was awesome. It seems like the Creed house is one of the very few perfumers who actually have a good number of multi-purpose fragrances with that high of a quality without falling short of boring. Yea, it took a lot of restraint to keep my budget relatively small throughout the years. I figured I can't drive the M3 if I haven't learned how to drive in the Civic yet.

These are definitely on my list to try out in the next couple months.

Acqua Di Parma Colonia - Listed a lot in the "versatile fragrances in your wardrobe" thread.
Creed Green Irish Tweed - Popular and for good reason. Popular in the "I've heard of it, but I wouldn't spend the money, but it's really good" sort of way in the masses.
Divine L'Homme Sage - Intriguing, but the composition seems like hot weather could possibly be a stretch. Also, it's in the upper price range of where I'd like to spend.
Frederic Malle French Lover - Seductive aromatic for everyday? Not sure about that. The price tag is the same as Divine. Worth a shot anyway.
Guerlain Cologne 68 - One blog said it was the "baking soda" of fragrances. Extremely versatile, high quality, and friendly to noses around me.
Habit Rouge - A Guerlain classic that some members listed as versatile. Let's try on that "red jacket". Might be a bit much for hot weather.
Le Labo Rose 31 - Clean and dirty at the same time. Also in the upper part of my budget.
Cartier Roadster - Marc (L"Homme)'s review on this gets me intrigued. Not too heavy, not too light. Quality Cartier release.
Cartier Declaration Essence - I just heard it's a good flanker. I'll hunt down a sample of this eventually.

Any thoughts? Now onto responding to the other posts since it's a thread I started and I always like returning feedback to others who are helping me.


Already on my list of things to try. I've been wanting to try this for the past 4-5 months now. I originally was going to buy this blind instead of YSL L'Homme (which I smelled before and enjoyed). I just could never pull the trigger. The notes looks spot on with what I'm looking for.


Thanks for that suggestion! I'll definitely grab a sample from Sephora on this one. As a car guy, the bottle is pretty cool. I'll have to wear Platinum Egoiste more than once, but the first impression was a good one. "Good", but not quite "OMG I NEED A BOTTLE OF THIS".


Tried Kenzo Power, the abundance of warm florals was alright. I did consider buying this based on glowing reviews, but I decided it wasn't what I'd really love wearing, don't get me wrong, I like it, I just don't love it. However, I did put my friend onto it. "Here, try Kenzo Power." "This one's really sweet, but I really like it." I feel weird about Polo Green and I automatically associate it with something from a drug store. I can't stop thinking about George Carlin's joke about the guy who smells like a pine air freshener with this one. Don't know why. MKK's predominant musk notes scares me a bit. If I wanted to try an SL, Chergui would probably be up there on the list.


"New York" sounds interesting. Patricia de Nicolaî (the perfumer) was a protégé of Jean-Paul Guerlain from what I've read, right? I think I'd like Original Vetiver if I enjoy wearing Mugler Cologne. Thanks for the Cologne du 68, I did not know that one existed and it's very reasonably priced to boot. Will look into it.


D&G's "The One" is already on my test list. I got a sample of it a week ago. Sprayed it on my wrist once and I thought it was decent. Need to wear it though. Sorta gaining popularity though (which isn't a terrible thing, just means it's halfway decent). Fleur du Male's orange blossom bomb might scare me.

I randomly found my old thread from about eight months ago. LOL. Here's my conclusion. I have smelled a lot of things at the fragrance counters throughout spring and early summer. I've come to a conclusion to a short list of "year rounders" that can be worn anywhere. It's my brief list from a lot of things I've worn in the past several months. I'm likely going to miss some on the list, but it's late and way past my bed time. I'm pretty sure there some people will disagree with, but it's worth a shot.

Designer:
Bulgari Aqua
Herrera 212 for Men
Chanel Allure Sport
Chanel Platinum Egoiste
Dior Homme Cologne
Cartier Roadster
Cartier Declaration
Kenzo Power
Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey
Lalique Encre Noire
Hermes Terre d'Hermes
Gucci Pour Homme II
Thierry Mugler Cologne
Perry Ellis (2008) *surprisingly decent!*
Tom Ford Grey Vetiver *it's the sample I'm currently wearing often*
Solo Loewe *nice alternative to Allure Sport, IMO*
Prada Infusion d'Homme
Everlast Original 1910
Guerlain Cologne du 68
Yves Saint Laurent L'Homme
Marc Jacobs for Men

Niche:
Acqua di Parma Colonia Assoluta
Frederic Malle L'eau d'Hiver *will work in "cool" weather, but not REALLY cold weather, great for California!*
Frederic Malle Vetiver Extrodinaire
Bond No. 9 Chez Bond
Bond No. 9 Riverside Drive
Bond No. 9 Bleecker St *deceptively solid, not impressed, but found myself wearing a lot at some point*
Bond No. 9 Andy Warhol Montauk
Creed Green Irish Tweed
Creed Silver Mountain Water
L'Artisan Tea for Two
Le Labo Rose 31
Different Company Bois d'Iris *listed as female...?*